On occasion my computer crashes with a blue screen of death (BSOD) with a notice that it is creating a minidump. From my understanding these minidumps should tell me what is causing the BSOD. I have been able to find these minidumps alright but am having trouble reading the files as whenever I attempt to open the minidump file an “Access Denied” message appears. How can I open these files? The computer is running Windows XP. (more…)

After many years of reasonable performance our computer has significantly slowed-down. Removing cookies and other internet “build-up” using CC Cleaner, and the regular scan with Spybot to remove any adware or malware, has not made any difference. As I prefer not to reload Windows can you recommend a tool to optimise the performance of the computer? (more…)

When I go into the “Add/Remove Programs” control panel in Windows XP SP3 most of the programs which are listed do not have a “Remove” or “Change” button when highlighted. Is this normal? If so, how do I uninstall these programs? On an unrelated topic, when scanning the computer running Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 a vulnerability is reported with the following details: “Detected: www.viruslist.com/en/advisories/23655, C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.MSXML2_6bd6b9abf345378f_4.20.9848.0_x-ww_1b897e9a\msxml4.dll”. The advisory site recommends installing Windows Security Update for MSXML 4.0 Service Pack 2 (KB954430). However, installing this security update does not make any difference. In any case, should I just uninstall MSXML 4.0 since I have MSXML 6.0 installed on the computer? (more…)

The CD drawer of my computer keeps opening and closing, about every 20 seconds or so. Has the computer been taken over by aliens? My 12 year old son has the theory that this is happening because we have not backed-up our files to CD and Norton 360 is alerting us to this omission on a regular basis, but we have generally been ignoring this warning. The entire computer is running fairly sluggish, so I have been considering getting someone in to “clean-up” the machine. Is this a good idea? (more…)

Since upgrading to Windows XP Service Pack 3 I have found that Google Earth crashes. The program worked fine in the past so I cannot understand why it no longer works. I have reinstalled Google Earth several times but this has not resolved the problem. The computer meets the minimum requirements for Google Earth. (more…)